Going in for the ‘kill’

818: 

Judgements shock, especially when we judge someone’s values - “You’re wrong in doing what you do, eating what you eat”. It’s a criticism of the mindlessness behind every ham sandwich or chocolate bar we eat. It’s eaten simply because it tastes good.

            We tell people, “You are wrong ...” and that, of course, is intended to undermine a person’s sense of being right. And it’s possible that, before this, no one has ever criticised what they eat, not from a moral point of view anyway.

            Along the way, most people have met vegetarians advocating healthier food and better animal welfare. We’ve all heard of battery eggs and the need to switch to free range eggs. But maybe never before have we been confronted about the wrongness of ALL foods connected with animals, including by-products (and that goes for buying clothing made from animal body parts, leather goods in particular).

            To almost everybody, eating is like breathing fresh air, it’s not something we think about. We’re brought up to ethically question many things, but not food. The foods we eat are what Mum and Dad fed us. It’s all just ‘normal food’. How can food be ‘wrong’? How can almost every meal our parents provided for us be ‘wrong’? How can the traditions of every community on Earth (over countless previous generations) be wrong? If meat and milk is so poisonous why aren’t we all dead?

            Perhaps over a long period we have worn down not only our immune systems but also our greatest potential, and it being so incremental we just haven’t noticed it. It’s rather the same as getting used to war and hatred and lingering illnesses, as if it were part of normal life, as if it were unavoidable. It’s possible even today that we can go through life never encountering anyone who advocates on behalf of animals, and so we continue using animals without ever being challenged about it.